Adventures in Dating

"You should date more."

"No, really, I'm good."

"But happiness is found through dating and finding that special someone."

"I'm done searching for now. Maybe that special someone should get up off their ass and come find me. What I have to do all the work? Since when did I have to fall for some lazy-ass? Besides, some of the happiest friends I have are of the single variety."

People sometimes wonder why I don't date more. So I thought I would give a description of a recent second date that I had. The first date was good. Not great. Not earth shattering. Not, "oh my God this is amazing." But good. So good that we decided we should make plans for a second date. She wanted to do a weekend matinee. Knowing that she liked breakfast, I suggested maybe a brunch followed by a movie, but she declined, reasoning that she enjoyed her sleep time, but then deciding that she wanted to see a movie at 1:00. Weird, brunch is at 1:00. Whatever. Later, when I found the showtime for the movie we wanted to see was at 3:00 she suggested we do lunch and then the movie. Ok, it was just as good when I suggested that two days ago, but I'm sure it sounds better coming from your lips.

The place she selected for lunch evidently closed and so I suggested we go to another place I knew she liked, Stir Crazy. We had a 25 minute wait and the restaurant is in a mall so she wanted to walk around. I mentioned that I had to go to Abercrombie and Fitch to buy a gift card for the partner's daughter. However, it turned out the store was on the far end of the mall and would have just been a hassle. She wanted to go to Crate and Barrel, which was right there, and look at pillows. Cool. Next she needed to look at shoes at the Footlocker.

We sat down to eat about 20 minutes later. However, she wasn't making eye contact with me, wasn't really asking me anything about me; it was really all about her.

"Are you tired?"

"No. Why?"

"You just seem to be a little out of it."

"No. I'm good. Actually, you seem to be really out of it."

"Hmm, I feel fine. I did wake up at 4:30 this morning, but otherwise, I'm good."

"Maybe we shouldn't do this."

"Hmmm?"

"I don't want to deal with this awkwardness. Maybe we should just not do this before it gets bad."

"It's going to get bad?"

"Well not bad. Look I have a really good friend in from out of town and I'd much rather go hang out with them than sit here having an awkward moment with someone that follows me into Crate and Barrel."

"Would you have rather I had waited outside?"

"Dating shouldn't be about this. It should be fun and laughing and it should be about going into Crate and Barrel to pick out pillows or going to find new shoes or any missions!"

"But ... you wanted to go to Crate and Barrel and to pick out shoes. These were your ideas."

"I don't want to do this."

She stormed out of the restaurant.

Nice.